Woo hoo!

Our daughter, Emily, told us that she was planning on coming home for a long weekend. She told us she was set to arrive on Saturday the 12th. (Last Saturday)

She told us she was planning on leaving Monday morning, which would be the 14th.

Well, you don’t have to wonder just how happy and over the moon excited I was to hear this. We said goodbye to her on December 26th and well, for this mom right here, that is a long time not to hug her.

So I last week as I am humming around preparing, getting food ready and everyone is happy, I hear the faint rumblings of discord from our beautiful Elizabeth.

Not head turning discord, but mumbling discord.

Such as her saying ” I guess I am happy Emily is coming home but then I will miss her.’

Or

“Emily is home and then she leaves again and I will be sad”

So as cute and heartfelt as these may sound in print. When you hear them said in an irritated and somewhat angry voice, they are not.

What they are, in my opinion, are a cry for some help in dealing with some hard emotions.

My daughter, Elizabeth, for those who don’t know, has special needs. She has global dyspraxia and SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) both of which affect her every day. And something else to add to the mix is that she and Emily are so very close. Emily was her voice when she could not speak, her support and her best friend. So life was a bunch of emotions and adjustments when Emily left for her residency.

Sure Emily was in and out of the house for different things she had to do for school, sometimes a month at a time. And this was hard for all of us to adjust to the comings and goings but for Elizabeth this still meant Emily was COMING home again.

Now, it is different.

Now, it is more certain Emily will be away.

But now, Emily is visiting.

Now, the feelings of missing return.

So we had to have some talks last week before Emily arrived.

Some had some pretty big emotions and loud voices with them but we kept talking and helping Elizabeth deal with what she was feeling.

We made plans for how the weekend was to go and made sure she had her normal days as well. Such as going to work on Saturday and hanging out with her tutor a bit on Sunday.

It was tough to get through those layers of emotions but our special needs children are so very aware, so very perceptive and so very full of emotions.

We told Elizabeth something that we have said so many times before but it so fit.

That all the emotions you have are okay. It is what you do with them that matters. So we reinforced this concept again.

The weekend went just great. I will say. We got to hug and enjoy and love.

Just wanted to share that the work is there but we can make such a difference each day for our children.

I wish everyone a peaceful week,

Michele Gianetti author of I Believe In You

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